Denise Goldberg's blog

Saturday, November 15, 2014

A higher than expected temperature (in the high 30s!) this morning gave me hope that today would be a repeat of yesterday from a weather standpoint. That wasn't to be; by the time we headed out it was at least 10 degrees cooler and still dropping.

Garden of the Gods called again. It tends to be more crowded there on weekend days but the chill wind must have convinced some to stay in warmer spaces so there were plenty of parking spaces. We started in the same spot as yesterday, walking a slightly different loop. The wind was howling and the temperature continued to drop. We managed a full loop, laughing as we neared the parking lot to see a group of people turn around saying that they had gone far enough. Hmm... even though our walk was shorter than it would have been in different conditions, it was good to be outside absorbing the sun.

Next stop, still in Garden of the Gods, was Balanced Rock. Luckily my eyes (and camera) were drawn to the trees standing tall on red rocks wearing a foreground of snow - the very large rock was the focus of many people who wanted pictures standing in front of the rock. Focusing on the trees, the angles of the rocks, and the snow decoration made me happy. I walked to the other side of the rock finding interesting patterns of color in the tilted (ground) sandstone. Waiting for a bit allowed the rock to pose for me without people decorations; hopefully I will be happy with one of the rock only photos! If not, I'm always happy with my memory - and it will give me an excuse for another visit, a chance to try again. I'd love to experience Garden of the Gods in different light conditions.

Yesterday Harvey handed me a copy of the book Oddball Colorado to see if there were any places that jumped out at me. I was intrigued by the section titled Kempf's Kreations. It described some large kinetic sculptures placed in front of the sculptor's house that caused a bit of a zoning controversy and the eventual removal of some of the sculptures. There are still some in place though and the description fascinated me enough that I had to see them!

The sculptures are quite large, with a lot of the pieces in a rather small yard I can understand the neighbor's reactions. From the few we saw today that are still in place it seems that the art would be better placed in a sculpture garden. I was glad to be able to see some of Starr Kempf's creations moving in today's strong winds.